


Sunsets on the evil eye

by Lilly_C



Series: Inking It Out [50]
Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Case Fic, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Canon, Post-Finale, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-06-10 07:17:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6945229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilly_C/pseuds/Lilly_C
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack wasn't the intended target.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunsets on the evil eye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dirty_diana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirty_diana/gifts).



> Post Hollywood Ending fix it. The title is a line from Hollywood Devotee by Panic! At The Disco. 
> 
> Thanks to Tamara for doing beta for me, any remaining mistakes are my own.

The last six months had been miserable for everyone involved with the investigation into the attempt on Jack's life throwing out more dead ends than tangible leads. It had taken it's toll on the entire team as well as Peggy and Daniel's relationship.

Jack was still coming to terms with being shot and knowing that he had spent close to two months in a medically induced coma to give his body and the punctured lung he sustained time it needed to heal didn't ease the anger that refused to go away.

Peggy and Rose entered the drawing room where Jack frequently sought refuge from Jarvis' persistent queries to his physical and mental states. It wasn't that he was ungrateful for the butler's concern and Stark's overall hospitality, it was that he missed New York and the longer he had to stay in Los Angeles, the more lonely and isolated he felt.

“At least you're awake,” Rose said to herself more than anything.

Jack just shrugged at the comment because he'd been sleeping more in the months following the shooting than he had since the war. The irony of that particular task wasn't lost on him or the women.

Peggy carefully handed him a cup of hot chocolate, a drink he'd become fond of while recuperating, before perching on the arm of the sofa to speak to him about the case. Rose remained standing throughout the discussion.

“There's been a small breakthrough,” Peggy quietly announced.

“What kind of breakthrough?”

“We may have caught the person who shot you. Daniel's currently interrogating them.”

Jack was reeling, needing several moments to process the information. “Do we know who they are?”

Peggy anxiously bit her lip before speaking again. “You don't but I do.”

Rose looked between the pair trying to gauge their unspoken reactions to the breakthrough. She knew that this suspects involvement had hit Peggy much harder than it should have done. She also knew that whatever the problem was she would find out soon enough.

After several minutes of uncomfortable silence between the trio, the women left him alone to process their news. They left the mansion and made their way back to the office to watch the interrogation.

~

Looking through the one-way glass at the suspect, Peggy realised two things about the shooter. She knew him and had spent the last seven years mourning him. “You're supposed to be dead,” she angrily whispered against the glass, doing her best not to put a fist through it.

Rose came to join her, the curiosity of seeing the man her friend knew in custody got the better of her. “Who is he, Peg?”

Peggy scowled at the question before softly answering, “My dead brother.”

The answer stunned Rose into silence because it was so far from what she had been expecting to hear from her friend. “When did he…?” she started but couldn't finish.

“Seven years ago. I remember that day clearly. I was trying on my wedding dress for the final time when the Western Union Messenger delivered the telegram to my parents,” Peggy paused for a moment, trying to stop the threatening tears from rolling down her cheeks. “My mother screamed and fell to the ground, father just stood there staring into the distance.”

“What about you?”

Peggy flashed a sardonic smile. “I took off the dress, broke off my engagement and I went to war. It's ironic that Michael's death spurred me on and now he's here, suspected of attempted murder.”

Rose briefly placed a comforting hand on Peggy's shoulder while Daniel made his way to the observation area to give an update on what he had learnt from their main suspect.

Daniel shot a disappointed glare at Peggy. “Could you give us a few minutes Rose?” he requested.

Rose quickly exited the room to give them the time they needed to talk.

“Why didn't you tell me you had a brother?” he asked, genuinely hurt that she'd kept things about her past from him.

“Because he died in the war.” Peggy hated that she hadn't told him about her family but they had become something of an off-limits conversation topic for her, even Angie didn't know anything about them. “What has he said?” she enquired.

Daniel ran a hand through his hair, sighing, “Says he will only talk to you.”

Peggy went to the door, stopping before she left. “I'm sorry Daniel.”

~

Reading the files that they had on her brother as she entered the room Peggy shook her head at the crimes he had committed since faking his death on that fateful day in 1940. “You've been having a good time,” she uneasily remarked.

Taking the speaker from his jacket pocket, he said, “Yes I have, peg-leg.”

Peggy froze at the childhood nickname and tinny voice echoing through the small speaker. She put the file down, going to his side of the table and opening the top buttons of his shirt to reveal a partial laryngotomy scar. “When did that happen?” she snarled in his ear.

Michael stared at his little sister unsure of whether or not she was going to tear him limb from limb and scatter his body parts all over the west coast. The way she looked at him scared him, spurring him to say, “Finnow,” without the aid of the speaker box.

“Those who survived the Battle of Finnow cannot speak unaided,” Peggy stated.

Shaking his head, Michael said, “Not true, I only lost a small portion of my larynx but it does hurt when I speak without the box.”

With that Peggy left the room for a moment to compose herself. Daniel stood across the corridor from her not knowing what he should do or say, he opted to keep the conversation work related. “Has he told you anything useful?”

“A little but it'll be quite a while before I know everything,” she despondently answered before going back into the room.

~

Daniel and Jack were sharing a bottle of bourbon while reviewing case notes. “How's things?” Jack queried casually.

“Fine, I guess,” Daniel started. Taking a healthy sip of his drink, he said, “Work is going fine at the moment but things with Peggy have been difficult lately.”

“Difficult how,” Jack said, surprising himself that he was actually interested to find out.

“I'm not sure, we just don't seem to talk about anything but work these days and when you were in the hospital she spent more time there than with me.”

Jack nodded. “You two need to have a talk and decide what you want.” Realising that it was time to own up, he revealed the reason for the vigil, “It was guilt that kept her at the hospital. She was supposed to meet me at the hotel and come back to New York that day, instead she was with you.”

Daniel's cheeks slightly flushed at the revelation. “I hadn't realised, Jack. She never told me she planned to head back east.”

Jack refilled their glasses before picking a file to work on while they waited for Peggy and Rose to join them. 

Half an hour of trying to decipher the familiar shorthand notes in the margins of the files scattered across the table, the men were about to give up when the women finally arrived to join them in getting the evidence finalised before making a decision on what they were going to charge Michael with.

Peggy grabbed one of the glasses, downing the amber liquid in one go before placing it on the table. Jack chuckled at the action, while Daniel and Rose looked equally impressed and worried. “What have you got?” she asked as she sat on the floor which gave her more space to work.

“Scribble,” Daniel remarked, pointing to the margins of the files he and Jack had been working on.

Rose took up the space on the sofa between Jack and Daniel before reaching across and taking a folder. “We have new information,” she said with a hint of pride.

For a couple of seconds they were silent before Rose spoke. “Yes we do. Michael told me that a ditzy woman from Idaho had hired him because she wanted to get to an SSR agent.”

Horrified by the turn of events, Daniel rambled incoherently all the while insisting on additional security measures at the mansion and SSR office, much to Peggy and Jack's disdain.

“That's exactly what Dottie wants,” Jack said.

Peggy let out an unusually shaky breath. “I was their intended target.”

Filling everyone's glass again, Jack sat back while the others began to formulate a plan to capture Dottie. Again. And to get full confessions from both of them as they now knew that it was Peggy that they wanted dead.

~

Several days had passed since the four of them had agreed on a plan that didn't put them in any unnecessary dangerous situations. Daniel and Rose stayed in Los Angeles to continue getting the information from Michael while Peggy and Jack went back to New York because she had a hunch that they'd find the vital piece of evidence in the file room of the office there.

Spending the best part of the day in the bowels of the SSR New York office was a welcome break for Peggy as the distance and time alone gave her an opportunity to decide what she wanted from Daniel. Work was the distraction she was grateful for especially when she had problems she didn't want to deal with.

Flipping through the blotter notes from the effects of Chief Dooley's office, she found an obscure memoranda; _JF. DU rescued unknown Brit male at BoF. Crime spree._ “Gotcha!”

She put the piece of paper to one side and focused on the rest of the accumulated paperwork. A chill went up her spine when she read aloud, “They assassinated two women for smiling at them on a Hampstead street in 1946.”

“Marge,” Jack said announcing his presence. “What have you got?”

Peggy smiled at him before gathering the papers together. “Dottie and Michael started their spree during the war, once it was over they became assassins.”

Jack put his hands in his pockets, leaning against the door frame. “Are they a modern day Bonnie and Clyde?”

Peggy shook her head, “I don't think so.” Using a nearby table to hoist herself up from the floor. She quickly rubbed the dust from her clothes before putting away the work product of their deceased boss. “Thanks. Chief,” she quietly said to the boxes before collecting her own papers and making her way up to the bullpen with Jack slowly following behind.

~

The following day Peggy was back in Los Angeles and ready to hit Michael with everything she had learned about his involvement at the Battle of Finnow, the nature of his relationship with Dottie and their subsequent crime spree which had escalated to murder just yards from their family home in North London.

For the first time since he was arrested Michael looked genuinely scared, although Peggy couldn't be certain if it was because of her, Dottie or the prospect of receiving the death penalty. She secretly hoped it was Dottie because even she had shown a few unintentional moments of weakness around the Red Room trained assassin during their encounters.

“What happens now?” he questioned, quietly worrying that he'd be sentenced to death for his part in the crime spree. Right now he wanted to find his accomplice and kill her himself for escaping custody and leaving him to face the consequences of their actions alone.

“You answer my questions,” she replied. “How did you become involved in Finnow?”

Michael paused for a moment before answering. “I was asked to help deploy a gas called Midnight Oil, it was developed by Stark Industries and was meant to help keep the men awake for long periods of time.”

Peggy knew all of this from when she was going all over New York searching for Howard's bad babies. “What about Dorothy Underwood?”

“She told me that she was a nurse. On the night the gas was released there was a problem, the men all started attacking each other and the few that did survive lost the ability to speak which is why Dr Fenhoff performed the surgeries on their throats. She gave me a gas mask before grabbing my wrist and running deep into the forest to escape the worst of the effects from the gas.”

Taking a moment before asking her next question, she crossed something off of the list she complied on the plane. “Were you two lovers?”

Peggy could have sworn that Michael's eyebrows raised several inches up his forehead. “No. She didn't like anyone to touch her and the scars on her wrists were rather off putting.”

“When did the killing start?”

Feeling repulsed by his own frequently coerced actions he replied, “At an abandoned school in Russia just before the war ended.”

“Who carried out the killings?”

Trying not to vomit at the nature of their crimes, he carefully answered, “I carried out the majority of the killings but it was because she told me that she had a record and would be sent back to prison.”

Reading through her list, Peggy decided not to ask the question that she had crossed out. It was the one answer that she knew she wasn’t ready to hear. She went to the question below it. “Who shot my colleague?”

Michael hung his head in shame. “I did. I had to get my file back and I didn't know what else to do, I had tried to ask him for it back but he said he had lost it.” Peggy knew that he was lying about that because Jack had the file up until he was shot. “Dottie was on the roof opposite the hotel with a rifle and sight, ready to take the shot just in case I chickened out and didn't go through with the plan.”

“The plan backfired!” she snarled. “You shot my friend all because of a heavily redacted file detailing all of your war time antics.” With that Peggy left the room and made her way to the bullpen.

~

with the office now relatively quiet, Daniel took the opportunity to pull up a chair to Peggy's desk and have a long overdue conversation, one they'd both been putting off.

“I've been thinking,” he started. Peggy was well aware of what was coming next but let him say it rather than jumping to the wrong conclusions. “We should go back to being friends.”

“I'd like that Daniel.” Peggy gave him her best smile. “We don't really work as a couple do we?”

Daniel chuckled at her honesty. “No we don't.” reaching across the desk to shake hands they said “Friends,” in unison and quietly laughed at the sudden awkwardness of their break up.

~

Colonel Phillips, Peggy, Daniel and Jack knew that something was going on when Howard opened his most expensive bottle of whiskey and poured large glasses of it. “Howard, why are we here?” Peggy enquired for everyone.

Tilting his glass in the colonel's direction, he said, “Chester and I have been talking about the future of the SSR.”

“There is no future for the SSR,” Jack said.

Howard and the colonel looked confused by the statement. “What do you mean no future?”

Peggy sighed before explaining everything. “There was a call from Washington before we left the office. The SSR is to be shut down affective immediately.”

“That's bullshit,” Chester said.

“Sir, it's happening. Any open cases are to be worked on until they're completed and then that'll be it. The official word is that this organisation as a whole was ineffective and that they'd try to secure jobs for some of the agents.”

“Yeah, the men,” Daniel scolded.

Howard looked to the four of them, took a large swig of his drink and told them his plan. “I'm going to set up a new organisation called SHIELD. It's all funded by me with some input from the colonel.” point to Jack and Daniel, “You two will have jobs.”

Confusion was rife on Peggy's features at Howard's plan for this new organisation, “What about me? I need a job too.”

Howard let out a low chortle before speaking again. “You my dear, are going to be in charge of it all.”

“WHAT?” Peggy exclaimed, convinced that it was the alcohol talking and not something that had been given a second thought when the eccentric genius was sober.

“Peg, you are the director of SHIELD. Everything that goes with running an organisation like this will be under your control but we still need to figure a few things out before making a public announcement of its existence.”

Although she'd already decided to give it a few days before asking him if he was being serious Peggy got off the sofa, quickly crossing the room to give Howard a big hug. “You're fantastic. Of course I still want to go on missions.” Looking at the other men in the room, Peggy couldn't hide her happiness at this turn of events. “You know what this means?”

“Do as Peggy says,” the men said simultaneously.


End file.
